පාරේ වාහන නැත්නම් ඉක්මනින්ම මාරුවන්න / A Silent Social Duty of Two Decades

Initiated in the mid 1990s, and considered as being among the first cluster of its sort, the Kingswood Traffic Controlling Unit is seen here in action, minutes before the closing time of school, at 1.30.

The interesting difference from about a decade ago is the high presence of junior students — these students should likely be from Grades 8 and/or 9 — as “controlling personnel”.

Here, they are being supervised by a “senior boy” (in white, mid left of the photo) and a controlling officer of the Sri Lanka Traffic Police. While it is commendable and inclusive to have junior students from younger age groups involved in activities as these — where they might inculcate progressive and socially-committed values from a younger age — one also feels that a few more senior students could also contribute to the overall “efficiency” of the programme.

We are not pointing fingers at the Traffic Controlling Unit, whose work has seldom been praised or acknowledged, in spite of being consistent and committed for the past two decades or so. It could also be that there was a dearth of older boys on this particular day (the photo was taken). However, it is important to keep up with projects such as this which reflects on the school, while meaningfully contributing to the society on a day-to-day basis.